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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Hi everyone....wanted to get opinions on piano players as I am not familiar with them.....im looking at a fairly new piano 2009 with one of these already installed. The seller tells me it adds value to the piano. I personally don't care for it, but before I decide to purchase, I want to know if it hurts the piano over time ..thanks everyone in advance.

The only problem I've heard of is they become outdated. I've a friend with one (much older than yours) which works with Floppy Disks. He's tried to update software etc, but has been told he should junk the player and get a new one installed. He's just junked it and using the piano as ... a piano.

First of all let me say that opinions on PW are many, varied and are totally subjective.

I recently considered purchasing a pre-owned baby grand with a player system. The owners were moving and were asking a very decent price for the piano. I honestly do not care for a digital player system, but since the piano already had it installed, I did consider it. So, I did some research on pianos with player systems. My conclusions were that if it has a player, leave the player system installed, or it could do more harm than good for resale value.

In the end, I decided on another similar baby grand without a player.

Ironically, it seems that the resale on a piano with a very expensive player does not necessarily add value regarding resale. I find that odd, but that is pretty much my conclusion.

So, that means you might come across a really good buy on a piano with a player already installed.

Good luck, and keep us informed.

Rick

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Piano enthusiast and amateur musician: "Treat others the way you would like to be treated". Yamaha C7. YouTube Channel

The purpose for adding a player system is to add usefulness, not value. If it helps you enjoy your piano more, go for it.

In general, they do not add or detract value from the instrument. With instruments over ~6' long, the addition of a player system becomes more sensitive as the percentage of buyers who are more serious players (and often don't have use for a player system) increases.

Resale value has several factors, and one is about how big is your pool of potential buyers. The addition of a player system adds fewer potential buyers than it takes away.

... For certain types of buyers (and I'd suspect for certain brands/sizes), I disagree. I'm not an anti-player zealot at all, it's just not a black and white issue.

I'm one of those types of buyers.

In my latest piano search I passed on a new S&S B and a rebuilt S&S C, in both cases because of installed players. Both were otherwise intriguing pianos and I hope they found good homes. But for me, the player mechanism made them non-starters.

Like BruceD I want to know what I should look out for when purchasing a piano with a player installed. Apparently, the piano hasn't been played much; just bought as display at home. What kind of wear/tear should I look out for?